Prison unit holding Britain’s most dangerous terrorists closed four days after London Bridge attack

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy A prison unit for Britain’s most dangerous terrorists was closed four days after the London Bridge attack, sparking accusations the prison service is “dysfunctional and naive”. Ian Acheson told The Independent that prison staff were unable to get dangerous inmates transferred into separation centres because of “extraordinary bureaucracy”. “Others thought were because of low recording of extremism behaviours, especially as these did not always present the most immediate safety problems when staff were also dealing with issues such as consumption and trading of drugs, bullying and self-harm.” Last year, a prison officer working in the high security estate told The Independent he believed at least 7,000 prison inmates in Britain were Islamist extremists. “There are a range of psychological, theological and educational activities aimed at rehabilitating terrorist offenders in the mainstream prison population and putting more of them in separation centres would undermine that work.”